The Biodiversity Advantage: Global benefits from smallholder actions

The Biodiversity Advantage: Global benefits from smallholder actions perceives that biodiversity loss is one of the main threats to smallholder farmers and their communities. Without biodiversity, livelihoods are not sustainable and food security and nutrition for the entire planet is precarious.

The report published by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in December 2016, confirms the important role that the world’s biodiversity plays in ensuring the future of sustainable agricultural development.

Moreover, the IFAD report shows how IFAD-supported projects are working with smallholder farmers to protect biodiversity in five countries, contributing to the well-being of communities as well as to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by helping to eradicate poverty, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agricultural practices.

Country examples cited in the report include Iran where farmers have been working in partnership with national authorities to identify the most appropriate mixtures of seeds through evolutionary plant breeding methods, demonstrating positive impacts on agricultural biodiversity as well as livelihoods for women and men. The report also shows how IFAD is working to protect mangroves in Djibouti and buffer zones in São Tomé, as well as forests in Mexico a country rich with biodiversity.

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(IFAD/Ob)